A Tempest in the Full Milk Lattes

Oh, Canada

Canada has let it leak that it is going to withdraw from the Kyoto protocol, the UN's "treaty" to combat global warming.  A spurious treaty to deal with a faux issue.  Kyoto and the global warming mob at the UN are a picture postcard for all that is wrong with the UN, which we believe to be irremediable and terminal. 

The Canadian government is not withdrawing because it believes that anthropogenic global warming is a crock.  Rather, it is going to "go it alone", believing it can do more and better under its own efforts.  This is a highly significant move for New Zealand, because the most potent rationale for our right leaning government to impose an Emissions Trading Scheme (aka, the grand tax on all human activity) has been its positive impact upon trade.

Rusting Hulk Encrusted with Barnacles

The USS Spendaholic

Mark Steyn has an unusual gift of putting things in perspective.

More More More
November 26, 2011

I see Andrea True died earlier this month. The late disco diva enjoyed a brief moment of global celebrity in 1976 with her ubiquitous glitterball favorite: 

More More More
How do you like it?
How do you like it?
More More More
How do you like it?
How do you like it?

In honor of Andrea’s passing, I have asked my congressman to propose the adoption of this song as the U.S. national anthem.

Bare Cupboards

Demagogues and Democracy

The public "debate" over asset sales has played out as expected.  The opposition parties have demagogued the issue, not because they are opposed in principle (with the possible exception of the Greens) but to attempt to win notoriety and curry favour with the electorate.

This issue illustrates why pure democracy is an unmitigated evil.

Maybe Bilbo Knew Something . . .

Human-Sized Hobbit House That Costs Less Than $5,000 to Build

(From The Blaze)

This is not some set left over from The Lord of the Rings. This hobbit house is an honest-to-goodness man-sized home. Not only does it fit a family of four, but it cost just over $4,650 to build.

Expect Self-Interest to Emerge Full Blown

We Can Trust the Pollies to Get It Right

There will be a brief flurry of interest in the Referendum held on the 26th November, 2011 as the votes are counted and the results come in.  It would seem that the public favours keeping Mixed Member Proportional Representation and giving the politicians the opportunity to tweak it.

We think it timely to remind ourselves that our system of MMP reproduces the German system.  No system is perfect; the MMP system--with all its quirks and frustrations--has worked reasonably well.  Its faults are well known.  But now the MP's will get to tweak it and make it better.  We now enter a potentially dangerous phase.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Baptism and Christian Education

Church Government - What to Expect at a CREC Church
Written by Douglas Wilson
Friday, November 25, 2011

CREC churches share a deep commitment to the pursuit of Christian education. We are convinced that the world must be understood in a distinctively Christian way, and young saints are to be trained up into that way of thinking about it. The reason the world must be understood in a Christian way is because the world was created by the Christian God. Apart from Him, it cannot be understood properly. But because of the presence of sin in the world, there are a great many obstacles to this proper understanding. It does not come easily.

Education is all about learning how to take your rightful place in the world, and this is something too important to leave to our young people to figure out for themselves.

The Greatest Wonder of the Creation

Alexander Tsiaras: Conception to birth -- visualized

This from The Blaze:

Alexander Tsiaras, an image-maker and the author of the book “From Conception to Birth: A Life Unfolds,” gave a recently-published TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk, during which he unveiled a spectacular video about fetal development.

Alexander Tsiaras's book, "From Conception to Birth: A Life Unfolds"

The video, which graphically shows the process of human progression, begins by showing an egg being fertilized and ends by illustrating a baby’s actual birth. Throughout the clip, viewers see the full fetal development, with explanations about what, exactly, is happening at each phase. But the imagery is spellbinding.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Thanksgiving 2011

Liturgy and Worship - Church Year
Written by Douglas Wilson
Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thanksgiving in the midst of war is not an incongruity; it is one of our chief weapons. The Lord prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies (Ps. 23:5). We are not yet privileged to sit down in Isaiah's hall, where the trumpet and spear are mounted in places of honor, where we may celebrate as those who never have to study war again. Until we are ushered into that era (by the conquering gospel), we must learn to keep our powder of faith dry and our hearts full of gratitude.

A Peculiar Election

Keeping Oaths

This has been a peculiar election season.  For the first time in ages, the issue of public debt has been a foundation of the public debate.  Does this represent a paradigm change?  In this fixation over public debt, we are not alone.  Public debt and government spending will be one of the major, if not the major, issue of the upcoming US presidential elections in 2012.  We have seen polities in Europe shaken to their  very foundations over national indebtedness that is bringing government to its knees before our eyes.  Ratings agencies have overnight had an epiphany: countries can become bankrupt.  They have started downgrading national credit ratings.  Unheard of in the West of living memory.   

We wonder whether the epiphany has been sufficient.

Some Things Don't Change

Milton Friedman on New Zealand's Disease

In the light of New Zealand's capitulation to socialist ideology, with almost all political parties trying to outdo the others in showing their commitment to the omni-competent state delivering nirvana, peace, prosperity and well-being to all, we find this thirty year old clip to be priceless.

It shows that we are very, very slow learners in this part of the world.  For all those political parties who range from mild-pink to flaming red, Friedman's words cut to the marrow. 

These Guys Deserve a DB

Hope They Get Recognition

One of the most spectacular things on display on the video of the crash yesterday afternoon at the Auckland Viaduct Harbour came after the helicopter had crashed.  Whilst not shown on some versions, the video below shows three men leaping up onto the wreckage and into the cab to assist the pilot.

In our view, these guys deserve a medal.  The downed bird could have gone up in a flash of exploding av-gas, but without a thought these guys jump up onto the wreckage to get the pilot out.  Selfless.  Very brave.

Bet they didn't give it a second thought. 



Makes you proud to be a Kiwi.

Arriving Penniless, Departing Millionaires

 The Real American Dream

The final decades of the Roman Republic were marked by fraud, graft, and simony on a grand scale.  Sarah Palin, writing recently in the Wall Street Journal describes the United States in terms eerily alike.  If this remains uncleansed, it does not bode well for that country. 


While many may deride and despise Sarah Palin, on this matter she is dead right.

Only Retired Politicians . . .

The Legalization of Drugs

In the West there is only one country which banned the production and sale of alcohol.  In the nineteen twenties, the United States initiated a policy known as Prohibition which outlawed grog.  It was a miserable failure.  Except for organized crime.  The Mafia went ahead in leaps and bounds.  It moved rapidly to control the illicit alcohol trade and became exceedingly wealthy as a result. 

Banning a substance risks it becoming very valuable, since a diminution in supply increases its market price.  When something becomes both relatively scarce and highly priced, organized criminal gangs get interested. 

One other lesson was on display.  Human beings cannot be controlled as to what they will eat and drink and consume.

It's Not Just Denmark that is Rotten

"We Fear Something is Wrong . . ."

When government arrogates to itself powers and roles not granted to it by the Living God bad consequences are inevitable.  One of these is that governments rapidly grow to incompetence.  Hence the never-ending jibes based on government folly sand stupidity and waste.  Here is yet another (real) example, from The Telegraph.

EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration

Brussels bureaucrats were ridiculed yesterday after banning drink manufacturers from claiming that water can prevent dehydration.

NHS health guidelines state clearly that drinking water helps avoid dehydration, and that Britons should drink at least 1.2 litres per day 

By Victoria Ward and Nick Collins

6:20AM GMT 18 Nov 2011

EU officials concluded that, following a three-year investigation, there was no evidence to prove the previously undisputed fact. Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month.Last night, critics claimed the EU was at odds with both science and common sense. Conservative MEP Roger Helmer said: “This is stupidity writ large.

The Worm that Turned

 Professional They Ain't

How pathetic can you get.  The media's last remaining shreds of credibility have been torn away this election, leaving on public display a grotesque corpulence, festooned with pustules.  One would have thought that the media could not sink any lower when it tried to publish an illegally taped conversation, pompously asserting that it was "in the public interest".  Their hypocrisy knows no bounds it would seem.

But no.  It gets worse.

Socialism's True Face

 All In Denial

Socialism is an evil and corrupt ideology.  It is the spawn of Unbelief, and ultimately the Pit.  It looks to the State as Saviour and Redeemer of mankind.  It is to the State that socialist influenced men look to legislate and bring in nirvana.  It is sickening to see the way our politicians on the hustings all look to the government to "make things right".  But socialism is particularly bad because it proceeds on the basis of theft and covetousness, using the power of the state to steal money from citizens and bestow it upon grateful subjects.

Socialism always spawns a more and more authoritarian statist society.

A National Fail

Destructive At Every Point

There are several principles which eviscerate socialism as an ideology.  One is its institutionalising of theft and covetousness.  Another is the slavery that comes from its inevitable national indebtedness (more on that tomorrow). A third is the impact it has upon human beings, stifling their God-given instinct for risk-taking, hard work, and entrepreneurship.

The following is currently making the e-rounds.  It aptly highlights socialism's negative social and psychological impact upon human beings as they make their way in the world.  These factors are not imaginary, but real.

The King James Version

Still Speaking Powerfully

Here are excerpts from a recent article in National Geographic on the 400 hundred year anniversary of the King James Bible.  It's an amazing story, really.

Humble Pie

John Armstrong Faces Reality

We have blogged recently on the absurd media-induced brouhaha over Prime Minister John Key's private conversation secretly recorded.  The media, smelling sensation, circled like sharks.  Gone completely was any commitment to the law, to ethics, to morality.  The media overnight showed their dark, smelly side.

The self-important provocateurs proclaimed that the "scandal" would change the election outcome; a real contest was suddenly before us; the media had uncovered some dirt.  Meanwhile the police served search warrants upon the media.  Suddenly everyone involved on the media side became very tight-lipped and circumspect, except for the cacophany of demands from them for John Key to release the tape "in the public interest"  Sadly for them, the public was not interested.  It smelt a dirty rat. 

Leading Herald political correspondent, John Armstrong, initially a cheerleader for his colleagues, now starts to eat the inevitable humble pie.  He acknowledges there has been a complete disconnect between the media and the people.  Not surprising, since the media are the most arrogant and elitist amongst us.

Culturally Impotent Christians, Part II

Stigmatizing Unbelief

In a previous post we discussed some of the factors which historically have made Christians culturally impotent.  This is a critical subject for the church generally and all individual Christians to have considered and upon which to have come to some solid biblical conviction. If we fail here, whether out of ignorance or uninterest, we risk undermining the church and dishonouring the Name of Christ.

The essential factor as to whether Christians are culturally powerful or anaemic is the ability of the Church to endure from generation to generation, which, in turn means that it is critical that we are successful in raising our children to walk in the Way, and we have done.  Any faith which cannot bind its children into obedience and loyalty is not merely culturally impotent, it shames the Name of God Himself.

Studies in I Samuel

The Grave of Exile

Expository - Book of Samuel
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, November 12, 2011

INTRODUCTION:

Under continued pressure from Saul, David is forced to leave Judah and take refuge with Achish, who was the king of Gath. He had complained in the previous chapter that certain men were trying to force him to serve other gods (1 Sam. 26:19) which he was unwilling to do. He was willing, however, to look like he was changing sides. During this time, David was playing a high-stakes double game.

THE TEXT:
“And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand . . .” (1 Sam. 27:1-12).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT:
David said that if the situation continued unchanged, he would eventually be killed by Saul.

Overdone Egg

Self-Righteous Puffing

One can't help but be amused at the brouhaha currently playing out in NZ politics.  One one side is the pompous, self-righteous "mainstream media" (who now, we hear, have a "spokesman"); on the other is the Prime Minister.  The argument is over Key's refusal to permit the release of a surreptitiously recorded conversation while Key and another politician sat in a public coffee bar and had a cup of tea.

For the past week, the media has made it the story, as if it were the great issue of the moment.  The public is simply not interested.  But the Commentariat is indignant.  The august self-important pretension of the media has been impugned.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Tend To Your Own Knitting

Liturgy and Worship - Exhortation
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, November 12, 2011

One of the great Pauline principles we have to be reminded of on a regular basis is the principle called “minding your own business.” As soon as we move away from a realm of life that we are not directly responsible for (as in, our own job, our own family, our own sanctification), and we attempt to engage in a little voluntary help with the sanctification of others, we are activating many more things than simply a desire to lend a hand.

There are issues of authority and responsibility, there are issues of our own craft competence (or lack therefore), there is the example we set for other volunteers who now want to throw in their helpful suggestions, and so on. But face facts—a group of fifteen volunteer helping helper types couldn’t successfully organize a two-car funeral.

Goff, the Theologian

 The Gods of Theft and Covetousness

It is refreshing when political leaders cloak themselves in the nobility of religion.  Even more exhilarating is when they quote the Lord Jesus as a warrant for their pontifications.

Then we are transported up to the third heaven when the noble leader, whose platform is a deluge of guilt and envy, insists that his policies are Christianity in action.  At last, a Christian political leader.  At last a man who stands respectfully, head bowed, before the Lord, calling upon people to follow him in his quest for more theft, covetousness, and larceny.  That's what Jesus would have done.  How offensive.

"Blue" Inequality

Intramural Fight Amongst Factions on the Left

Here is an interesting take on the OWS protestors--which are rapidly becoming a noisome stench in the nostrils of the Democratic and progressive elites in the United States.

It is more complex because — as noted by Kenneth Anderson, David Brooks and Walter Russell Mead among others — the Occupy protests are primarily an intramural fight among the factions of the Left.  As Brooks would have it, this is a fight about Blue Inequality, not Red Inequality.  But these analyses  — perhaps because they are primarily intellectual pursuits — tend to gloss over the more simple aspect.  The Occupy protests are about jobs.  The Occupiers are unemployed and they tend to have a certain class of college degree and cannot find a certain class of job.  Anderson strikes close to the heart of the problem with Blue Inequality:

Culturally Impotent Christians, Part I

When Worship Becomes Seeker Friendly and Entertaining

In his book One True God: Historical Consequences of Monotheism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), sociologist Rodney Stark  argues that there are at least two sociological conditions under which monotheistic faiths have been particularly strong.  These conditions are times of persecution and of adherence to the rituals of public worship.

"Strength" here refers strongly to maintaining traditions, beliefs, and practices and locking those attributes into the next generation.

His first example is the the sociological power of the rituals of public worship.

Those Asset Sales

Borrow and Spend

There is a good deal of rubbish being generated in the debate over the Government's proposal partially to sell down some assets to raise cash for spending elsewhere.  Some of the rubbish is coming from people who should know better. 

Take Brent Sheather, an investment adviser,  for example.

Finger on the Trigger

Obama Unbound

Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online

Richard Nixon went to Red China with political impunity. Had a Democrat tried that, he would have been branded a Commie appeaser.  To this day, liberals cannot conceive that during the two world wars, progressives like Woodrow Wilson, Earl Warren, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt trampled on civil liberties in a way unimagined by Dick Cheney.

Ronald Reagan signed the most liberal illegal-immigration-amnesty bill in history, and ran larger yearly deficits than Jimmy Carter had. “Read my lips” George H. W. Bush agreed to huge tax increases. And George W. Bush ran up the largest debt of any eight-year president, outspending Bill Clinton more than fivefold. The latter, remember, bombed Belgrade without either congressional or United Nations approval — and without anti-war protests. Without an opposition, almost anything goes.

Courage and Christian Ministry

Go Make Shoes

"Courage . . . is the indispensable requisite of any true ministry . . . If you are afraid of men and a slave to their opinions, go and do something else. Go and make shoes to fit them" (Phillips Brooks, as quoted in Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 300).

Atheism's Idiocy

Atheism As an Epistemic Hoot

Books in the Making - Chrestomathy
Written by Douglas Wilson
Wednesday, November 09, 2011

"On your account I am one set of complex chemical reactions secreting something that I falsely believe to be arguments to another set of complex chemical reactions who falsely believes that he is reading them . . .  (I)f you apply reason and self-criticism to an atheistic examination of ethics, you should discover within ten minutes that there aren't any . . . You are a hodge-podge of neuron-firings looking into an abyss which you only think you understand. You don't really understand it because you are not thinking at all, but rather doing what chemicals always do under those conditions and at that temperature" (Letter From a Christian Citizen, pp. 98-99).

Catching Australia, Part II

The "Luck" Won't Last

Just how substantial is Australia's competitive advantage.  Huge--in every respect.  At least that is the received wisdom.  But some Australian's beg to differ. 

Here is a decidedly negative view out of Sydney.  See what you think.

Catching Australia, Part I

New Zealand's Slope is Steep and Slippery

Catching up with Australia (in terms of relative GDP and overall material prosperity) has long been a dream of successive governments in New Zealand.  It has come up again in the current election.  The field of debate roughly falls out into four camps.

The first camp's (centre right) dream has to do with out competing Australia and producing our way to relative prosperity.  The second camp (centre left) views it as a matter of legislating parity in things like wages, income levels, and living standards.  The view is that if you first create by fiat legislation, economic reality will kick in to match it.  Put wages up by law and suddenly everyone becomes more productive.  (Yes, it is as stupid as it sounds, but there you go).

Cringeworthy

Remarkable Immaturity 

In a “faux pas” for the ages, President Barack Obama conducted what he assumed was a private conversation about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with French President Nicolas Sarkozy after the G20 summit on Thursday. The only problem, however, was that the microphones the two men were wearing from their earlier press conference, had not in fact been turned off. What ensued was a major public embarrassment after both Obama and the French PM disparaged Netanyahu, saying they  cannot “stand” dealing with him.

Obituary

Alan Peachey

The news of Alan Peachey's passing beyond the sight of mortal men has not been unexpected; his battle with cancer over a number of years was well known. 

He will be remembered as a high performing, no-excuses teacher and principal.  He remained all his career thoroughly committed to the public education system.  That commitment led him into not infrequent conflict with teacher unions and educrats.

UN "Science"

Thoroughly Discredited

Here is another review of Laframboise's little red book on the dishonesty of the IPCC.  This take is by Matt Ridley, and was published in The Australian.  (Another review has appeared in the London Book Review, here.)

Credibility in Tatters

Cooked Books In Pustule Stew

Well, we always knew this was going to happen: Labour's cooking the fiscal books again.  Challenged to provide costings for its election spending promises, it has eventually delivered--voodoo numbers. (Disclosure: we remain sceptical of the Government's numbers as well as being over egged when it comes to returning the Crown's books to surplus in the declared time frame.  But at least the Government's numbers would have had Treasury and Inland Revenue scrutiny.)

Let's put the finger on Labour's pustules:

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Faith or Presumption in Child Rearing?

Marriage and Family - Some Hard Words for Fathers
Written by Douglas Wilson
Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Because of the condition of our sinful world, words from God's law are frequently "hard words." But, for the same reason, but in a different sense, words of gospel and promise are even harder.

In my books on family, I have often emphasized that the rearing of godly children is not accomplished "by works," but rather "by faith." And this leads, naturally, to the standard questions about the relationship between faith and works.

This presents a problem of practical theology. How are we to understand our need to believe such promises, and how can we do it without veering into presumption? Here is an example of one such promise:

An Axis of Incompetence

Educrats and Teacher Unions

Teacher unions and the educrats have a lot to answer for.  They have systematically opposed every reform of note in the government run education system for the past twenty-five years.  The principles driving this reactionary bias are pretty obvious: firstly, teacher jobs and conditions must be preserved at all cost; secondly, if any proposed government policy would threaten teachers or the control of the unions over the sector, it will be vociferously opposed.

The tactics employed are crude, but effective.

The Scourge of Socio-Economic Inequality

A Modest Proposal to Reduce Poverty

It has become the new normal--particularly in these heady election days--to shriek and moan about income inequality in New Zealand.  OK, so it's not helped by parties on the Left loudly alleging that the current government has committed the unpardonable sin of causing wider wealth disparity than when it took office.

But, the government buys into the assumptions and the allegations as well, since its defence is to talk about what new programmes it is going to roll out to combat economic inequality.

Fraud and Corruption

The IPCC At Work

Just a couple of years ago the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was revered as the highest, best, most prestigious institute of science on the planet.  Its processes were exacting.  It followed the truth wherever it found it.  Objective, hard scientific rigour were its watchwords. 

Anyone--anyone--who disregarded its findings was immediately exposed as an ignorant  Luddite.

If only . . .as the saying goes.

Donna Laframboise, a Canadian journalist (with all attendant biases intact) has published a book on the calibre and scientific rigour of the IPCC.   Laframboise has not just smelt a rat--she found the IPCC infested with an entire colony.  Tony Thomas reviews The Delinquent Teenager.

Quantitative Easing 101

Clarke and Dawe give us the idiots guide to Quantitative Easing

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Ron Paul, Enemy of Liberty

Culture and Politics - Sex and Culture
Written by Douglas Wilson
Monday, October 31, 2011

Let me say at the outset that I don't know who I will vote for when the primary campaign finally wends its way to Idaho. The field will no doubt be a bit different, and we likely know a good bit more about the candidates, probably a bit more than we wanted to know.

I know which candidates are flat out -- Romney, Huntsman, and Gingrich -- and they are out for character/religious reasons. One of the fundamental qualifications for office in Scripture is that a man must hate covetousness.

European Disease

Who Believes the Patch-Up?

Here is an excellent summary on the European debt crisis, reprinted from the SMH, originally published in the New York Times.  (And whilst you read this, keep in mind that it is only a matter of time before world capital markets start to look at debt levels in New Zealand.  All it would take is for government spending to ratchet up a few notches and the debt would be out of control--that is, getting back into balance and then surplus will never happen, without a grand default.  The New Zealand electorate has absolutely no appetite to see any serious reduction in government spending.  Keep the cash coming, baby.)

High Stakes Poker

We Deserve Job Security and High Wages . . .

The Qantas grounding was a big deal.  High stakes negotiation.  Reverberations in lots of places--if you were flying Qantas at the time.  But the whole mess illustrates the commercial realities of the early twenty-first century.  Realities that can be ignored only to one's commercial demise.  Regrettably, it is a lesson few in New Zealand have learned.

Qantas competes in what has become a global business.  Meanwhile it is an airline which has been nurtured under a cocoon of protections and indirect support by successive Australian governments.

Letter From America

A Nation In Nappies

Once people think they can leverage the power of the state to extort money from citizens and use it to achieve their social goal of choice there is no end to what will be devised.

Now, politico in the United States are calling for government funding of diapers--which is regarded as a major social cause.  The most effective thing to do is engage in a bit of good old fashioned mockery.  (But, a word of warning: mock at your peril if you believe that the state has a fundamental right and duty to engage in such larceny and interference.  For the arguments you employ will apply equally to your favoured rorts.)

Unfit for Public Office

Cynical Manipulation

In the recent history of our country we have had more than our fair share of venal politicians who cynically and deliberately set out to mislead the electorate.  Such politicians view the people as ignorant sheep, easily gulled. They come out with slogans or sound-bites they know are deceptive and misleading.  However, they also know that their sound-bites will appeal to the ignorant sheep.  They use such tactics to manipulate the electorate to gain support--all the while knowing that, once in government, they will never have to carry out their stated intentions. 

Our current proportional representation encourages that kind of venality amongst politicians.  The Greens, for instance, are masters of the art.

Blowing Smoke

Little Toot

In a PC-gone-mad world, this campaign video--a You Tube sensation--appeals to the inner rebel.  Great stuff. The MSM networks have been tut-tutting like Little Toot. Even better.

"Christian" Social Justice, Part III

Me Too Christianity

When  Christians and churches look at what the world of Unbelief is doing and start to say, "Me, too" there is always a whiff of brimstone in the air.

Once again, despite Paul warning us not to be conformed to this world (Romans 12:2), Christians are taking up noxious pagan idolatries and attempting to baptise them with a bit of the Bible.  Why?